Does Workers Compensation Apply for Remote Work?
Ever since the pandemic broke out, labor law experts began to consider how to provide remote workers with safe and healthy working conditions. Due to Covid-19, up to 63% of Americans work from home. Some experts believe that 48% of employees will be working remotely for a long time, at least part-time. Working from home has advantages and disadvantages. From an insurance point of view, it raises serious questions about who will pay the costs if an employee is injured while working remotely.
Employee compensation laws vary from state to state. Generally, any company that hires workers must take out workers compensation. In New York, workers compensation rights are some of the strongest in the country. They are intended to cover the costs of medical care and lost wages of an employee who is injured at work. The challenge is when work is not performed in one, fixed place and the employer has no control over the material working environment conditions.
If you suffer an injury or accident at a regular workplace, you are covered by workers’ compensation. It provides protection against accidents or diseases that may be sustained by workers in the course of their employment. In the case of working from home, most teleworkers are also covered. This is because workers compensation is not tied to a specific building or address.
Common injuries that remote workers can experience include sprains and strains in the back, slips and falls, and even construction-related work. It’s not atypical for employers to request that employees build their own office set up, which could require some type of construction work. These types of accidents may not be as severe as the types that real construction workers face, but the causes are similar. It should be remembered that the injury must result from a work-related activity to be covered by a Workers’ Compensation Policy.
Remote work has become an everyday reality for many people. And like operating in any workplace -office or factory – accidents can happen. If the at-home or hybrid working place is here for the long run, then new laws may be established to confront the change in environment. Nevertheless, workers can know that any accident on the job is always worth looking into.